The hydrogen vehicle movement appears
stalled. The push to use the diatomic gas as auto fuel never
exactly made it off the ground due to a lack of infrastructure --
production, distribution, and storage facilities. However, for
a time automakers like Toyota and Honda were pushing ahead with
testing of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

A new
study might put another road block in front of the prospect of a
near term commercial hydrogen vehicle release, while giving the
plug-in vehicle movement a nice boost. The study was authored
by Ryan McCarthy at the University of California, Davis and published
in the Journal of Power Sources. The ground-breaking study,
entitled "Determining marginal electricity for near-term plug-in
and fuel cell vehicle demands in California: Impacts on vehicle
greenhouse gas emissions", examines the emissions impact of
hydrogen and plug-in vehicles versus their gas
counterparts.

Lowering carbon emissions to fight warming,
along with high fuel prices and global-political instability, has
been a key driving factor for the adoption of hybrids and alternative
fuels. The new study, though, judged hydrogen vehicles to be an
utter failure at that objective, in their current state. The
study concluded, "All of the pathways except for [fuel cell
vehicles] using hydrogen from electrolysis reduce [greenhouse gas]
emissions compared to ICEs and [hybrid electric vehicles]."

It
doesn't dissuade further research into hydrogen vehicles; it simply
indicates they are unlikely to be ready for showtime anytime soon.
It points out that steam methane reforming is a promising emerging
method of hydrogen production that may one day allow hydrogen driven
vehicles to actually live up to their emissions promises.

In
the near term, the study finds that plug-in electric vehicles are the
best option in terms of lowering carbon emissions. Despite
using electricity mostly generated by "relatively inefficient
steam- and combustion-turbine plants" the well-to-wheel carbon
impact of EVs is still significantly lower than hybrids.

While
by no means the definitive study on the topic, the new work does much
to fill in the gap in knowledge about what exactly the true impact of
green vehicles are. While the topic of on-the-road emissions
has been well researched, there's been much less progress in
examining the full lifetime impact of vehicles. Now, that
lifecycle has been examined in depth and EV advocates can put another
feather in their caps, while hydrogen advocates are once again handed
another setback.

The study may play a crucial role in forming
the policy of California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard, an effort to
reduce the carbon impact of transportation. And given that
President Barack Obama's Environmental Protection Agency has embraced
California's emissions policy, the new study could have a
profound impact on the course of regulations and the auto market
nationally, as well.